House Approves Medical School Bill

The House passed President Kennedy's bill to aid medical schools last night by a 288-122 vote, after beating down a Republican attempt to remove a provision for federal loans to medical students.

Seventy-one Republicans joined 217 Democrats in voting for the measure, which now goes to the Senate for action. Twenty-three Democrats and 91 Republicans voted against the proposal.

The bill would make $205.7 million in federal loans and grants available to medical and dental schools for construction of new buildings and expansion of existing facilities.

The six million dollars set aside for loans to medical students drew the strongest opposition from Republicans. Opponents of the loan provision charged that it duplicated the provisions for aid to graduate students under the National Defense Education Act.

A display of solidarity on the part of House Democrats kept the student-loan provision in the bill on a 239-171 vote. Two hundred six Democrats and 33 Republicans voted to retain the provision, while 33 Democrats and 138 Republicans opposed it.

But backers of the measure beat down an amendment by Rep. Abner W. Sibal (R-Conn.) to prevent loans to segregated medical schools. Speaker John McCormack (D-Mass.) in a rare speech on the floor, charged that the amendment was designed to defeat the bill, since Southern Democrats would have to oppose the measure if the amendment were accepted.

The American Medical Association has opposed the measure as an example of "unnecessary government interference" in medicine, but George P. Berry, dean of the Harvard Medical School, has endorsed it. Dean Berry said he thought "every medical school in the country is in favor of this bill."